Exhausted
by Geckomom
Summary: Steven and Connie are old enough to be trusted in their first mission without the gems! They search for an ancient emerald in a deep cavern. Warning- they get hurt a lot! What will happen to them!
1. chapter 1

**I'm really not sure what this is going to be yet. Steven and Connie are both older at this point. Connie would be sixteen and three quarters and Steven would be eighteen.**

Steven and Connie were on a mission. Garnet felt that this mission was small enough to let them do it alone. Peal of course argued but Garnet won. Steven and Connie were supposed to retrieve an ancient emerald from a cave. It was a small cave and Garnet thought there would be no monsters in it. She was wrong...

Steven and Connie were walking through the jungle toward the cave. They only had three miles left. Steven wasn't wearing anything different than he usually did but Connie had a huge back pack full of survival stuff. Connie held the scathed pink sword in her hand.

"Connie, do you want me to carry that? It looks kinda heavy. I'm pretty strong sometimes.",Steven shrugged.

"Um, okay. But just because it's really hot out here.",Connie stopped and took off the back pack and gave it to Steven to carry. He put it on his back.

"So how much longer do you think we have?",Steven asked her.

They started walking again. "I think we have about a little more than two miles.",Connie said as she thought about the directions the gems told them to go.

They walked together towards the cave in silence. Steven was huffing in the hot jungle sun and Connie was swatting away bugs. They both had a good layer of sweat on their faces. That didn't help with the bugs.

Connie cut through a bunch of vines with the sword. Behind them, was the cave. It looked like a giant mouth protruding from the rocky earth. The outside of the cave was covered in vines and ferns. The entrance to it was about eight feet tall. They would both easily walk through. They walked to the mouth and stopped.

"Break.", hugged Steven.

"Okay.",Connie agreed."We should probably keep ourselves hydrated."

She took out two water bottles and gave one to Steven. He drank the whole bottle and then sighed in relief. Connie drank half of hers and saved the rest for the way back.

They laid down in the jungle dirt and looked up at the sky. They couldn't see it. The Forrest canopy was too thick.

Steven sighed, "I wanna go home."

"Me too, but we are already here, we might as well keep going." Connie turned to her side and looked at Steven. The jungle floor was cooler than the air so it felt nice. "You look sweaty", she commented.

"Thanks. I am sweaty. It's really hot here.", he looked at her. "But it's bearable with you by my side."

Connie smiled at him. "We should probably get going. The sooner we get the emerald, the sooner we go home."

She got up and held out a hand for Steven. He grabbed and they both got ready to go again. Steven put on the back pack and dusted off his back.

"Let's go!", he said and started moving into the cave. Connie followed him this time. It got dark really fast and when they were only a few meters in he stopped.

Connie bumped into his back. "ugh!" she got up, "Sorry. I can't see".

"That's why I'm looking in your pack. did you bring a flashlight?"

"Yes. I brought two of them. I figured we'd need them if we're going in a cave.",she laughed.

Steven found them and turned one on, immediately blinking in the bright beam that was on his face.

He handed that one to Connie and turned on the second one. It didn't turn on. "Aww. this one's out of batteries."

"Oh. I didn't think to check them. I'm sorry. We'll have to just use one I guess."

Steven then had a thought. "Oh wait! My gem can light up like a flashlight! I've seen the others do it before." He lifted up his shirt and looked at his gem. Nothing happens so he closed his eyes and concentrated on what he wanted. He opened his eyes again and saw no difference. "I'm sorry, Connie. I can't figure it out."

"It's okay, Steven. I'm sure we will do fine with one light.", she handed him the light again because she was in the lead and couldn't really lead him easily. The cave was tall but only a few feet wide.

He grabbed it and moved forward. The dirt on the ground eventually turned to gray stone as they tracked deeper.

"I thought this cave was supposed to be small.", Steven said to her. His voice echoed throughout the whole space and pebbles rained down on them.

"shh. This doesn't look that safe. We have to keep quiet.", Connie whispered.

They continued on for a long time in the cave. The air started to taste stale and musty as they got farther in. After a while, Steven walked into a large chamber. His flashlight couldn't even touch the other side of the rock with all the dust floating around. A loud roar erupted from the back end of the chamber. It shook the whole cave and rocks started to crumble down.They both screamed, not helping the situation. Stevens gem then lit up the rather dark cave. "And now it works!"

A large rock fell onto the stone in front of them, crushing the smooth stone to tiny bits.

"We need to hide!", Connie grabbed his hand and pulled him to the side of the cave. The sides of the chamber were polished smooth and black. There was nowhere to hide. They both stayed by the wall and watched rocks fall down onto the center of the chamber and shake the whole ground. Steven grabbed Connie and he formed a large bubble around them.


	2. ch 2

The rumbling stopped and Steven and Connie opened their eyes. There was piles of rocks all around the floor. They could still navigate through them but a lot of the rocks were sharp.

"What was that?", Connie asked still shocked.

"I think it might be a corrupted gem monster. Garnet said that there wouldn't be any but she only sees probable outcomes. She might not have seen this. I will call dad and tell him to tell Garnet what is going on"

"okay."

The bubble remained intact and Steven's gem still had a pink beam emmiting from it. He got out his phone and miraculously, it still had signal.

"Uh hey Dad. Can you find Garnet? it's kind of important."

Steven listened to his father as he made his way to the beach house. He heard the door open and heard him say something to someone, then the phone crackled as someone else picked it up.

"What's wrong, Steven.", It was Garnet.

"Um well, were in the cave right now and we heard a monster in the back and its roar collapsed a lot of the ceiling. We're okay though. I just wanted to let you know. Incase something comes up."

"Steven, we will be there as quick as we can. I'm sorry I didn't know that it would end up like that."

The phone clicked as she hung up.

Connie asked, "What did they say?"

"Garnet said she was on her way."

Connie nodded in the pink light and said, "We should try and impress her. I bet she would be proud if we were done with the mission by the time she was here"

"That's a good idea! We're old enough to take care of ourselves.", Steven said and he lightly dropped the bubble. not wanting to start another collapsing.

The started walking to the back end of the cave very carefully. They had to jump and climb over large rocks. Steven was better at jumping over the rocks with his floating powers but he climbed them normally so Connie wouldn't fall behind.

Connie slipped when she was climbing and she fell onto a sharp rock. She screamed as she was impaled. The rock was a jagged point on the end and it stabbed through her stomach when she fell on it.

"Connie!", the walls kept still as Steven threatened another rock slide. He jumped down from the rock and floated down to her.

She was staying still, trying not to move. "St-steven...", she was shaking now. Blood was starting to form against the spike.

"Don't say a word. I'll help you get off of there." Steven observed the wound. "This is going to hurt" he grimaced as he lifted her up from her back and pushed her body up.

Connie blacked out after screaming for a second. Steven whined as he continued to slowly pull her body off the spike. He reached the top of the rock and felt the release of the rock as he pulled her off. she gently set her body down and looked at the wound. There was a ragged hole in her stomach and blood gushed out from it. He whined as he looked at it. He didn't think it would be good to spit in it with his healing spit so he went for the next option. He looked at her face and then reached down his head to hers. He kissed her lips and made sure that there was a good amount of residue in her mouth. After a second of sorry from Steven he saw a shimmer glow around Connie's wound. It slowly closed the skin together and stopped the bleeding.

Steven sighed in relief. He looked at her chest, watching for breathing. She was breathing steadily. He sighed again and slumped down next to her unconscious body. Blood was puddled around her torso. He gently moved her body to the side, where there was no blood.

She gasped a minute later and sat up way too fast.

"Connie. Lay down. You got hurt, and need to take a break"

she seemed to understand as she grimaced and slowly laid back. "Ow.", she croaked.

Steven laughed a little. "You need to be more careful. I was so worried about you."

"We should keep going. I'm fine.", Connie said. Her voice was still strained but it was better than it was when she said ow.

"No. You need to get better. Do you want some water?", Steven asked.

"No. I'm fine.", her voice was almost normal already. He watched her examine her stomach where the spike impaled her. She sat up and looked at it. Her face was back to normal and was it's usual warm brown. "Steven, Im sorry I didn't mean to out you through that. But I feel fine now and I want to keep going.", she begged

Steven sighed at her ,"Connie. I don't think it's a good idea, but sure. We can keep going."

"Yes!", she jumped up into the air. She didn't have any problem getting up.

They tracked their way to the back of the cave once more. This time, even more careful. Steven slipped once but he managed to catch himself.

When the reached the end. They were tired. It was a long way back. At least a mile of climbing and jumping rocks. They saw an entrance to a door. Steven pushed against it and found that it was hard to break open. He summoned his shield and wacked the stone door. The door crumbled on impact and bits of rock were flying everywhere. For a moment, the dust blocked out Stevens gem and the flashlight from glowing. They stood and waited for the dust to settle.

Once, the dust settled they looked into the room. It was a long hallway shape and it had polished walls just like the big room they were just in.

They walked in together, hand in hand. The hallway was narrow but it fit the two of them side by side. They kept walking because there was nothing in the room to notice.

Suddenly the floor went out underneath their feet. They fell almost fell twenty feet before Steven managed to float. He pushed Connie's body above his as he slowed down. He didn't float fast enough as they fell and they hit the ground hard.

Steven screamed when he landed on his ankle. He broke it almost off of his leg. He screamed in agony as he felt the burn run up his leg and all through his body. It felt like it was on fire. He cried and managed to sit up and look at Connie through the darkness.

She was fine, she landed on her side. She would get a bad bruise later but she was lucky enough that she landed okay.

Connie crawled over to him. It was dark so she couldn't see much. Stevens gem stopped glowing and the flashlight was broken. She looked at him and couldn't see what was wrong.

"What's wrong Steven?!", Connie was feeling around his body to feel for anything broken. She reached his ankle and squeezed it too hard. Steven Screamed again. "Oh! I'm sorry You broke it really bad I think. She didn't feel any blood so at least the skin was intact but the ankle was twisting the wrong way and was already swelling.

Connie hurried and dug through the back pack. She had an emergency flare. Connie struck it against the rock and it hissed, letting off a bright red light.

She looked at Stevens ankle and saw that it was pretty bad. It was twisted the wrong way like she thought and it looked shorter as if the bones were all crunched together. Steven was still crying and looking at his wound.

"C-Connie! It hurts. Are you okay?", he almost yelled.

"I'm fine! all Im going to have is a bruise." she put her hand by his face. "Lick my hand"

He did as he was instructed even though it was strange. She placed her wet hand gently on Stevens ankle. Even though she was gentle, he still jumped at the touch.

They waited for the spit to heal him. Nothing happened after two minutes. Steven felt the pain lessen to a full throb.

"Maybe it doesn't work on yourself. We never really had to heal you before.", Connie looked at him concerningly.

"It's fine. The pain isn't so bad.", he looked at her. "I tried to heal a cut on my hand once. It didn't work then either but it might just be my emotions."

"We can't keep going anymore.Its too dangerous", Connie looked at him sadly.


	3. ch 3

They were eating some granola bars that Connie packed when another roar echoed through the cave. It was a lot louder and sounded near by. They even heard gutteral growling. It's noise echoed on.

Connie still had the flare but it wouldn't last much longer. She looked at the broken light. She took the batteries out and put them in the dead flashlight that didn't work earlier. It lit up brighter than the flare.

"Are we going to have to fight the monster when it comes?", Connie asked already knowing.

"Unless it's friendly", he said hopefully.

Connie continued to add spit to his ankle, hoping it would work. Once again it did nothing but make his ankle gross.

They heard stomping up ahead. It was getting closer.

Connie looked at Steven. "Garnet might not find us in time." she looked down " If that's the case, I wanted you to know. That I love you."

He looked up with a smile even though he was in pain. He had a thick coat of sweat and dust on his face. He had a small scratch on his cheek.

"I Love you too Connie." he looked at her with sad eyes. "I know we'll make it out of here. You just have to believe that you can do it and we can make it out. Together."

They stopped breathing when they heard sniffing of a large creature behind them. Connie pointed a shaking light at the sound. In the beam she saw a corrupted gem monster.

It was huge. It looked about twelve feet tall and had scales covering it's body. It looked like a mix between a dragon and a dog.

It had one huge jaw also covered in scales. In its mouth stood rows of rotting teeth. It's body was long and scaly and it had a long thin tail with hair at the end. It also had two droopy ears that were scaly and furry at the same time. The whole thing was red and black.

The teens screamed. That only scared the monster. It reared and roared. It tried to pounce on them but Steven formed a bubble in time to stop it. Connie had the sword on the other side of the bubble. She was ready to fight but Steven was still sitting, unable to stand.

"Steven! The sword! I can help but I need it!"

Steven looked outside the bubble and saw the sword laying just outside the bubble. He pushed the bubble to an awkward shape and made it form around the sword. He was weak and the monster was still pounding on the bubble. Every hit was making it harder for him to keep the bubble standing. Connie grabbed the sword and then she dragged Steven to the other side where he wouldn't get pounced on.

"drop it." ,Connie said.

Steven did. He groaned as the pressure to keep it up vanished. Connie jumped out of the way as the monster pounced, missing Steven by a few feet.

She yelled to get the monsters attention. It turned slowly and growled at her. She ran as soon as it turned. It ran after her and it one stride it caught up. I reached down to bite her in half with it's enormous jaws. Connie turned just in time and she stabbed it in the mouth with the sword.

The monster screamed and roared. It reared again and this time Connie saw the gem. It was just below it's chest. It was a red square with black streaks running down it. Like spilled ink on blood.

She ran and slid down underneath it and when it put it's front paws back on the ground, it gave Connie a chance to grab the gem. She grabbed it and pulled on it, pulling her whole body up trying to get it out.

The monster roared in terror and jumped. It bucked until Connie fell off it's chest. It took a while for it to notice she fell off until it returned it's attention to Connie, It's fur on its tail stood straight up in anger.

It roared and snapped as it rushed to the running Connie. Right as it was about to bite her again, she turned. It expected this move and doged her sword. She turned again just in time to see it's mouth come over her and engulf her in darkness.

Steven screamed. He has been trying to get up unsuccessfully. His ankle was hurting worse from him trying to use it. He had tears streaming down his face. The only thing keeping him up right now is the hope that the monster didn't chew. He stood up. He didn't even feel it as his ankle broke more. He was numb. He screamed a war cry as the monster was almost upon him. His shield formed and it smacked the monster in the jaw. It shook it's head and came at him again. Before it could bite him he jumped up with his good leg and grew his shield. He smashed it down on the corrupted gem with the last strength he could muster.

It yelped as it's neck was severed and it poofed into an explosion of red smoke. Steven passed out.


	4. ch 4

Connie was running in a sunlit path in the Forrest by the light house. She was laughing as Steven was chasing her. She looked back and noticed that he caught up to her. When she looked back to the path she was struck. She hit a tree and immediately fell over and laughed. Steven laughed with her as he fell on top of her. She was so happy. She started playing with Stevens hair and soon enough was reaching in for the kiss that she always wanted but never had enough courage to actually do.

She kept kissing him until she heard him scream. 'Connie' The sun suddenly turned black and the ground grew cold and hard under her.

Connie opened her eyes and gasped. It was just a dream. But if that was the dream, did that mean... She looked at her body it was covered in black slime. Ew...

She remembered Steven screaming her name. She grimaced and lifted her pounding head. She saw him laying on the ground, his body laying still.

Connie quickly looked back at her body and discovered that she was amazingly, unharmed. Just full of monster slime.

She ignored her headache and her sore side and walked over to him. When she got close she could see his body was mostly intact, which was a good sign. His ankle was swollen very bad. He was breathing but they were very small shallow breaths.

"Steven!" she moved his head around trying to get him to open his eyes. His eyes didn't open. She grabbed the flashlight that happened to be by her and shined it around, looking for signs of danger. She saw the backpack and she saw the gem that she failed to pull out of the monster, on the ground behind Steven. She couldn't bubble it so she left it to be and hoped it would take a long time to form. She was looking through the backpack for more supplies when she heard a noise above the tall cavern they fell in.

She didn't dare make any noises in case it was another monster. She listened as hard as she could. It was a voice. It was a person! It was saying something she couldn't make out but that Did matter. They needed help.

"Help!!!", her cry was echoing through the cave. She looked up towards the ceiling that they fell through.

The voices seemed to get louder and she could almost make out what they were saying until one yelled "Connie!", it was Pearl.

"Were down here! Stevens hurt!",Connie yelled to the voices in the dark. She heard banging noises resonate from the ceiling. It sounded like they were trying to break something to get in.

Connie heard a loud smack as something broke and crunched rocks. She heard something big and heavy land on the ground not too far away. Probably rocks. She shined her light above where the rocks fell. She saw a light flashed from above. She squinted at the bright white light. "Connie!", she heard Pearl and Garnet say at the same time.

They jumped down and easily landed on the ground and rushed to her. "I-Im fine! Steven is hurt!"

she explained the whole story from when they walked into the cave to them as they looked at Steven. Garnet gently picked his body up. That must've been heavy. Connie couldn't lift up Stevens newer teenage form.

She carried him in her arms then jumped back out of the cave, to the ceiling thirty feet up. Pearl bubbled the gem that Connie pointed her to then grabbed Connie like Garnet grabbed Steven. Amethyst was there

to carry the backpack. She followed Garnet and Pearl out of the cave. They ran back to the warp pad, not stopping for miles.


	5. ch 5

"Is he going to be okay?", Connie asked when they finally got to the beach house through the warp pad.

"We don't know.",Garnet said with a frown. "Let's bring him to Roses fountain."

"B-but what if it doesn't heal him? His spit and her tears have the same composed elements.",Pearl said to herself. "Maybe his spit is just faulty, it doesn't always work."

Pearl walked back onto the warp pad with Garnet and Amethyst. Connie ran to join them.

Amethyst warped the group off into the air. They shot up into the air and vanished into beams of light. they formed back in the room that held roses fountain. They ran up to the fountain and Garnet walked Steven in while he was still in her arms. Pearl suggested Connie to go in and heal her aching side while she was there, and maybe wash the dried goo from her body.

Connie happily obliged and walked into the pool. She immediately felt the warm tears sooth her sides. She started scrubbing her arms in the water while watching Garnet with Steven.

The water healed Stevens foot and the scratches all over him. He remained lightly breathing just above the water in garnets arms. His eyes remained closed.

They took off and went back to the house, figuring that he was just tired. Which he was.

They had Connie go home to clean up. Pearl changed Stevens clothes and put him in his bed. She stayed with him for the rest of his sleepy night.

When morning came, Pearl was still watching him as she sat on the side of his bed. Amethyst and Garnet both walked out of the burning room. They walked over to Pearl and looked down at Steven. He looked fine other than the fact that he has been unconscious for a day.

"If nothing happens in the next hour, I'm going to call a doctor.", Garnet said to them.

"Yes, good idea", Pearl said quietly while still watching him. Her eyes were distant as she stared into his unmoving eyelids. She cried over him last night.

"You look like you could use a break P", Amethyst said concerningly.


End file.
